What the Harry Potter Symposium Taught Me

Let me tell you a sad story. Once upon a time, I was shadowing an 8th English class and we were all in a library. The librarian asked the students to raise their hands if they have read the Harry Potter books. About 3-5 out of twenty students raised their hands in each of the 4 classes I attended. That's like 20% people. After that experience, I decided that if I became a middle school teacher or even got to do British literature in High School, I would most definitely be bringing Harry Potter to the masses! So I was incredibly excited to go to the Harry Potter Pedagogy (or teaching) Symposium.

While none of the content related to The Count of Monte Cristo or my thesis whatsoever, two of the the three presented their comparison papers. Which is what I'm most nervous about in writing my paper-its comparison structure. It was helpful to see their successful structure. One person compared Remus Lupin's teaching style to Dorlores Umbridge's, while another compared the first day lesson plans of Lupin, Umbridge and Treawley. Both of them organized their presentation by focusing on each character at a time. I realized that for my paper, if I did that tactic, I could easily end up giving more importance to Edmond Dantes, who I have a lot more text on, and make the comparison unequal between him and the Queen of Hearts. So I am going to organize my paper based by the common and contrasting elements not the characters.  

Feels like a Tug of War

Digging into my paper has showed me how much more I need to research and has also helped me figure out what information I am looking for. So that's been great as now I don't feel like this paper is a giant, terrifying monster. Anyways, so while I decided to let go of comparing Edmond Dantes and Alice (her character) and to instead compare him with The Queen of Hearts, I still haven't let go of my interest in existential meaning in the 19th century. I'm worried that perhaps I have too much going on in my paper. Also, I feel like my comparison is starting out to be a tug of war rather than flowing. So thoughts? Any advise on how to do a successful compare/contrast paper?

Here the link to it, so check it out: Edmond Dantes and the Queen

A {working} Thesis is Born!

My Mind Map

So these past couple weeks I've had some difficulties in nailing down a thesis that a-excites me and b- connects Alice and the Count of Monte Cristo together well. And at last, I think I have at least the basic form of it, which is fantastic. Before, I was focused on directly relating the Edmond to Alice, but as I let go of my initial ideas, and just tried to come up with different thesis ideas, I saw that all my evidence in connecting those together didn't have enough supporting evidence to be its own idea. But then, I remembered that another character in Alice I had been interested about, was the Queen of Hearts! And weirdly, I found that a comparison between her and Dantes fit a lot better. So click the link to check out my current shell of a paper, which will probably change, but at least I have a much clearer direction now!